I wanted to ask you about this:
CHOHMAKAIMURA
From your soft list...
Why not Chou Makaimura? Or at least Choumakaimura?
27 15-03-2009 05:18:02
Re: The transliteration thread (44 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Good call!
And yeah, if I asked you all the questions on this subject that I have, we'd get enough material for a wiki, I am sure.
28 15-03-2009 00:52:41
Re: The transliteration thread (44 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
What is your opinion on the best way to transliterate the names of the Ray series: Rayforce, RayForce, Ray Force, etc?
29 11-03-2009 13:28:21
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
By the way, Recap, I am planning to review a couple of Famicom games soon, so maybe we can try laying the reviews out in Postback's style? If I send you the text and the screenshots, can you do it?
30 11-03-2009 03:10:14
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Better. Still not entirely happy with it though... Compare with the site's frontpage, and see how much nicer the thinner black borders look...
Anyway. That's enough for one day. If you come up with any more ideas we'll try them out.
31 11-03-2009 03:01:54
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
This actually looks pretty good, if we could get it to move a few pixels to the right. You just need to add a black border...
32 11-03-2009 03:00:35
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Recap escribió:
No. 8: http://i40.tinypic.com/6fy1bc.png (733 x 175)
Try it without the Insomnia and the browsing lines (just to see the effect).
I uploaded it. But I can't remove anything, because these are php files. The stuff at the top works site-wide. If I change anything I will mess up the entire site.
33 11-03-2009 02:58:22
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Recap escribió:
Also, the non-reviews index buttons must definitely be 'negativized' if you're going to preserve them. I'd go with a single text format for now, though.
I don't really have any image processing apps on this laptop. If you can do the negatives yourself and pass them on to me, I will upload them to my server, so that we'll have them for when the time comes, and also just to see now how everything will eventually look.
Of course when the page goes live I'll remove all the icons and replace them with a few text links, until we have enough material for full issues.
Recap escribió:
icycalm escribió:I uploaded 6. Check it for yourself.
Oh, I see. what about making that header's width a bit smaller?
There's nothing I can do on my end. The image has to be 750x175, otherwise the page layout breaks down. You could add black borders to the right and left... I am not sure it would be advisable though, because you'd have to somehow manage to line up the left side of the wide border with the INSOMNIA text at top right...
34 11-03-2009 02:49:28
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Actually, I think it's too "busy" now. 3 looked better, no?
35 11-03-2009 02:48:11
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
I uploaded 6. Check it for yourself.
36 11-03-2009 02:35:34
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Oh ok. Just saw number 6. Can you redo it without the white border?
37 11-03-2009 02:34:37
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
I prefer number 2 more, because I like that "ex" font more than the other one, but I used number 3 because the others had a white border which clashes with the page design.
http://insomnia.ac/postbackex/
I think it looks pretty good. Now that you know what the page looks like you might be able to come up with a better-fitting header... Perhaps something with less empty space would be preferable, but either way, I am still content with what we already have.
Note that all the images are currently being leached off of geedorah's server, but this will be fixed eventually.
38 10-03-2009 21:44:06
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Recap escribió:
Nope, I meant "a translation of a review". Other articles' text doesn't need to be aligned with any image and inserting it is trivial; the reviews are the ones which may give me some headache.
Well, I'd need to post the two articles I already have before I can ask the guys to translate more stuff... I really wouldn't feel good asking them to do more, when they've sent me these translations almost a year ago and I am still sitting on them. Besides, one of them is already working on the rather long arcade stick article, so I think it would be best if we continued down this course until all the articles are finished. If you don't feel like beginning with the articles, then I can just post them using the Insomnia template, and we can replace them with the proper template later...
Recap escribió:
And don't you think it's better if the English version changes the site name a bit since it's indeed external to Postback? If "Postback EX" sounds too silly to you, we can find something else.
Postback EX sounds just fine.
39 10-03-2009 19:10:08
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Another thing I forgot: there needs to be a "Translated by..." line somewhere too.
40 10-03-2009 16:18:27
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
You can start on the translation we already have, and I'll also send you the two new ones to check later today.
Also, one other thing I forgot. There also needs to be a link from each article/review back to the index. This could be the Postback logo, so that when someone clicks on it they get sent to the Insomnia Postback index... However, for obvious reasons, it would be better if the Postback logo sends people to the Postback frontpage. So you'd need to add another link somewhere on the page which would point to http://insomnia.ac/postback/, which would be the Postback index. Kind of how in my articles it says "» back to commentary index".
So there need to be 4 additions to the existing template.
By the way, if you could send me a 750x175 Postback-themed banner I would set up the index right away, so that we can start tweaking it until we are happy with it. We already have one article to place in there anyways...
Also, we can insert the disclaimer (that says that you are not happy with the translations but that they are preferable to babefish) at the top of the index, so that we don't have to burden every single article/review with it.
41 10-03-2009 01:44:45
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
I would prefer the Postback translations to look just like Postback, only with Insomnia's color scheme. The only other additions I would want on each page would be:
-The link back to the original Spanish page
-An Insomnia logo somewhere, perhaps next to the Postback logo, which would link to my frontpage
-A link to the forum, pointing to the thread which would be dedicated to discussing each article/review
As for possible future redesigns -- I can redesign the rest of the site and leave the Postback pages as they are. If I want to change their color scheme, I can just edit them page by page, or add a little .php file that does it automatically. I know exactly how to do that, and it's not a big deal.
42 09-03-2009 19:41:27
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Recap escribió:
Postback EX #01 -- On Genocides and Reinventions | Kuroi Hitomi no Noire (PS) | Deae Tonosama Appare Ichiban (SFC) | Choosing your Arcade Stick Parts
So you want 4 articles to take up only a single slot on the frontpage? We could do it, but the pages would end up getting less traffic than otherwise.
As for an index page devoted to Postback -- there is nothing easier than this to create. All I would need is a 750x175 banner with the Postback logo. And I would also add a section on the sidebar of the frontpage where all the latest Postback updates will be linked. And of course every page would also link directly to the respective Spanish page.
All this stuff is really easy to arrange -- and to change around and modify as many times as we want afterwards.
The main work is the translation, and the insertion of the translated text in the original layout...
43 09-03-2009 17:27:06
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Recap escribió:
I didn't mean that. We can invent many things. For instance, think of it as "anthological issues". You can put into each of them whichever you want. The point is just not releasing the usual one-shots which would get lost on your frontpage.
I don't understand what you mean. The way I see it, it's either issue by issue, or article by article. I don't see a third way to do this, except if you want to group together 2 or 3 articles/reviews at a time, which I guess is possible, though I don't quite see the reason. Either go full out with entire issues at a time, or one article at a time, is how I see it. Maybe you can try explaining what you mean by "anthological issues"?
As for the one-shots getting lost on my frontpage, I don't see that happening. Indeed, if I got enough people helping with the translation, it would be my frontpage that would be flooded by your articles and reviews, not the other way around.
But I don't really care about this either way. The point is to get people to read this stuff, and if we are going to translate 60+ articles and reviews, and post them on my site, everyone will end up seeing them one way or another. I mean I don't think there are even 60 articles/reviews on there by me, let alone by any single other person. So you would end up being Insomnia's no.1 writer, lol!
So this is the point. The reason your website has "failed" is because people read some shit about you in a forum, then click on some link to a Spanish page which they cannot be bothered to try and read, then leave and never come back. So they simply end up believing whatever lies they have been told. The same thing happens with my site too, but at least the people actually read my stuff, and many of them see that the shit others are saying about me is not true, and so they keep coming back again and again. Then they go back and tell their friends that their shit about me is not true, and then multiple-page threads start in which people battle it out about whether I am an idiot or a genius, and that leads to more and more traffic to my site, etc. etc. Eventually, a decent reputation grows.
If your site was in English (including the forum), all the "retro" kiddies on the internet would be reading it and linking it with wild abandon...
44 09-03-2009 16:07:15
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Guys, I know Nietzsche, Baudrillard, Stendhal, Machiavelli, etc. from translation, and that's the only way I'll ever get to know them. Nietzsche is still Nietzsche even if you translate him into Swahili, so let's keep some perspective here. Postback will still be Postback regardless of the language it is translated into. It is still Postback even through babelfish.
As for translating Postback issues in one go, it's a good idea, but I think it would be too hard to implement with volunteers. Besides, if we take that route then we might as well stop translating individual articles and start from Issue 1 in its entirety.
Which is a great idea, but maybe not such an easy one...
On that note, how would you feel about simply hiring a competent translator, Recap? I am sure you could find someone in Madrid. I would be willing to go halves with you on that. I am already going to be sending some free games to the volunteers for their work, so if we could find a proper translator who could do the issues one by one, without asking for TOO much money, I think it could be worthwhile.
And of course the translator won't know too much about games, so we'll have to go over everything and fix any mistakes, but I am sure the end result will be even better than what we get now with the volunteers -- and it will also be much faster. A pro translator could do an entire issue in an afternoon, after all...
Think about this.
45 09-03-2009 03:54:00
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Marshall escribió:
but, I agreed with Recap that Postback will lost its personality with the transliteration, and the site lost its personal sign, I pressumed.
The site would lose nothing. We are not going to REPLACE the Spanish with the English translation, dude.
Marshall escribió:
From my point of view, Postback, it's that: a very personal view for classic (and not only classic) videogames and the japanese-showbussiness. Postback=Recap, and if he can´t keep this job so personal on english, it's better maintain the site in his original language.
No one said that the site would not maintain its original language. Of course it will.
Recap escribió:
But I wouldn't mind even inserting the English text in Postback's layout (or a similar one to it) in case you get one or more of the Revisiones translated.
Yeah, for the reviews we would have to use the same layout (I would personally love it if you could simply alter the color scheme to match Insomnia's, and leave all the rest intact. And I mean, you could always host a duplicate of the English translation on Postback too, if you wanted, with Postback's color scheme...).
It's going to be a bit tricky, of course, and require a bit more work than the articles, which is why I am leaving the reviews for after we are done with the articles. I would especially like to start with the more obscure ones, such as Kuroi Hitomi, Deae Tonosama, etc. I am sure they will cause quite a stir on the internets.
46 09-03-2009 03:06:38
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
After the translator is done, it is really only an issue of an hour or so for me and you to go over it and clean it up. So it's not that much of a time investment on our part, considering the benefits to both of us. And those benefits are:
-Your articles immediately reach at least twice as many people as usual.
-My site gets even more great content -- for only a very small time investment on my part (since most of the work has been done by you and the translator).
I would basically love to have your entire site (including the forum, lol!) translated into English and seamlessly integrated with mine. So that if I wanted to talk about Out Zone or Giga Wing or scanlines or arcade sticks, I could just link to your reviews or articles straightaway -- something which I can't do right now.
But, for a start, I think it is quite feasible to have all the articles translated within the next 5-6 months. We already have three almost done, so we are already about a quarter of the way there. At least as far as the articles are concerned, we might be able to catch up with you by the next issue of Postback. That'd be really nice, I think.
47 09-03-2009 01:52:34
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Recap escribió:
I think indeed that there're more non-Spanish sites linking Postack than Spanish ones [laughs].
Imagine how many more there would be if the site was in English. I am not saying it should have been in English. But really, the language barrier is the only reason you do not get enough feedback.
I think that, now that Insomnia's reputation is getting to somewhat decent levels, I should be able to find several people willing to start translating your site methodically. I already know at least 3 or 4 such people, though I am afraid only one of them can really do a good job. But as time goes by, and it becomes easier to find more volunteers, the day might even come when a new edition of Postback will be offered in Spanish and English simultaneously.
All this, of course, assuming we still care about updating our sites one or two years down the line :)
48 08-03-2009 19:57:28
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Recap escribió:
I guess it never is, yeah. But don't get me wrong, more than acknowledgement per se, I'd just need more evidences of my articles being read. Like having all those dozens of shitty blogs/forums dedicated to "retrogaming" or Japanese games linking my stuff.
If it was in English, they would be. That's the only thing that's holding you back...
Recap escribió:
I always love a good-reasoned criticism, whichever its polarity, on the other hand.
The problem with being always right is that you cannot get good-reasoned criticism. You can get either complete approval, or complete rejection :)
49 07-03-2009 21:11:35
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Also, I laughed at this:
Recap escribió:
I'm not saying I get no visitors and even some nice feedback once in a while, but it's not enough for what this place offers.
It never is, is it?
50 07-03-2009 21:10:29
Re: Site issues (54 respuestas, enviadas el English talk)
Recap escribió:
Of course I was talking just about popularity. A website with no visitors is a failure. I'm not saying I get no visitors and even some nice feedback once in a while, but it's not enough for what this place offers. Especially considering the competition. I know it's directly related with the quantity-over-quality mindset and whatnot (I actually believe it's worse than that, though; the people just can't tell where there is quality and where there is not), but that's besides the point -- simply, I don't run a website only because I somehow enjoy it, but because I want my stuff to be read. And, as you know, I already stopped caring about winning that battle.
If your reviews and articles could somehow be translated into English, you'd get a lot more feedback and acknowledgement for your work, which would then motivate you to keep going. I already have two of your articles translated in my inbox, which I've been meaning to run by you for corrections so that I can post them on Insomnia. I've had them sitting there for ages, so you know, we'll get around to those and all the rest eventually. It just takes time and patience. Reputation DOES spread, even for high-quality content which is difficult to appreciate -- it just takes time... When the Insert Credits and Gamercafes and Select Buttons are all forgotten, people will still remember our websites, man. If you keep this in mind, you can keep going for a long time indeed -- as long as you are enjoying yourself, of course.
I wish I had the patience and skills to write so many understandable theory-focused editorials as yourself, but I just don't have them nor I'd enjoy it as much. And think about this -- I myself did enjoy Insomnia more when you favored reviews over editorials or philosophy lessons.
Well, like I said, once all the theory is out of the way -- and, really, it is a job that had to be done eventually... and is very near completion right now -- then I won't have anything else to talk about except specific games. Of course at that point the question will be whether I feel like talking about specific games or not... but if I do, then the only things on Insomnia's frontpage will be new reviews.
and he persisted on insulting me by denying it all.
Yeah, this really is the worst. One can forgive almost anything in the end, except that.